SIBU (Nov 28): The people of Sibu must continue to be vigilant in the fight against Covid-19, despite the division having registered a single-digit case report yesterday.
In pointing this out, Assistant Minister of Local Government and Housing Dr Annuar Rapaee said the nine new cases recorded yesterday marked the first time that Sibu reported single-digit number since the Pasai outbreak in January this year.
“I would like to thank everyone in Sibu for their collective efforts towards breaking the chain of Covid-19 infections.
“While this is a very positive development after so many months, it does not mean that we can start to be complacent and take things lightly.
“Please continue to adhere to the standard operating procedures (SOP) to prevent the number of cases from climbing,” he said during his Facebook Live session last night.
On the subject of booster dose, Dr Annuar said according to news report, in China, the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) supported the ‘mix-and-match’ booster vaccine dose.
Moreover, he shared with the session participants the data recorded in Chile between Feb 2 and Oct 17 this year, where heterologous (mix-and-match) vaccine dose had been proven to provide better protection against Covid-19.
“The data on those who had received Sinovac for their first and second doses, but got Pfizer or AstraZeneca (vaccine) for their booster, indicated that it (heterologous vaccination) provided better protection against Covid-19 infection, including in terms of hospital and intensive care unit (ICU) admissions.”
However, Dr Annuar acknowledged that it was up to the recipients to decide on their choice of booster vaccine, adding: “I’m just showing the data with the evidence.”
Touching on Covid-19 positivity rate for Sarawak, he said it had dropped to 4.6 per cent from the targeted five per cent.
He also disclosed that R-nought for the state had gone down to 0.78 per cent currently.
He further said based on the data received on Nov 25 via the CovidNow portal, there had been a drop in fatality – from 50 to 18 people per one-million population within 14 days, or a decline of 53 per cent, in Sarawak.
Turning to the national data from the Ministry of Health (MoH) recorded between Nov 1 and 20 this year, Dr Annuar said unvaccinated adults had 14.5 times higher chance of dying than those who had been fully vaccinated.
Adding on, he noted that the Sinovac breakthrough death risk stood at 34 per million, Pfizer at 9.8 per million, and AstraZeneca at six per million.
“Again, I’m just showing the data for public observation, and not meant as a debate,” he reiterated.